The Virginian-Pilot
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Virginia Tech running back Branden Ore, who just completed his junior season, will file paperwork with the NFL before today's deadline to declare for the league's April draft, according to his high school coach.
"He'll submit it, just to have that in place in case he has to go," said Elisha "Cadillac" Harris, who met with Ore and his mother at their Chesapeake home last week. "He's not going to hire an agent because he can withdraw his name by
Jan. 18. He's weighing his options and that could be one of them. Hopefully he doesn't have to exercise it."
Harris said Virginia Tech's coaches may not welcome Ore back for his senior season after learning their starting tailback was called to testify in a federal drug case last week. Ore, an Indian River High School graduate, had been present in a vehicle in which crack cocaine was found by police a year and a half ago. Ore testified against the driver, who was convicted Friday but whose defense attorney tried to place the blame on Ore.
"I went over to the house to tell him how I felt about his situation and the choice he made," said Harris, who remains a close family friend. "He's back up at Tech now, but I don't think he's enrolled. I guess he's waiting to see what has to happen. The coaches, they're not happy, that's for sure."
Harris said Ore's mother spoke with Tech running backs coach Billy Hite on Monday and that the coaches are scheduled to meet with Ore this week "to see what hoops he'll have to jump through to allow him to come back."
Harris said he didn't know whether academics were part of the equation but said "they might be."
During his testimony in last week's trial, Ore admitted to using marijuana in high school and continuing to associate with marijuana users in college. The driver testified that he was taking Ore to purchase marijuana on the night he was pulled over and the crack was discovered.
"I'm very concerned about him," Harris said. "This is his life, his livelihood. I'm concerned about him graduating and I'm concerned about his football. That's a God-given ability he has that's greater than what most will ever have. I'm like a concerned father; I want him to get himself in line."
This is not the first time Ore has drawn the ire of Hokies coaches. Hite asked Ore to leave school and the team in the spring of 2006, citing a lack of focus in the classroom. Ore returned to his mother's home and worked at a 7-Eleven warehouse for the semester, where he said he learned the value of hard work and earned a greater appreciation for his opportunity at Tech.
That summer, he went back to Blacksburg, where coaches said he seemed to have matured. He had a breakout sophomore season, piling up 1,351 yards and 17 touchdowns rushing and receiving. He was selected first-team All-ACC.
Last summer, Ore left summer school abruptly - citing personal issues back home - and returned to camp in August out of shape. He was briefly demoted to No. 3 on the depth chart but won the starting job before the season started.
He struggled through the year, though, averaging a full yard per carry less than in 2006. He didn't crack 1,000 yards for the season and surpassed 100 yards in just two games. And he was suspended for the first quarter of the Orange Bowl after showing up late to a practice.
Ore said during the season that he knew his sub-par year meant he wouldn't be a high draft choice and that he planned to come back as a senior. He didn't even request an evaluation from the NFL advisory committee to see where - or if - he'd be picked if he came out early.
"When he's in top shape, he's one of the best running backs in the country," Harris said. "But a lot goes into getting drafted these days and, obviously, this would not be the best timing for him to come out. He needs to get back in school and we tried to map out a plan. That's what his mother and I want. The coaches will let him know by Thursday if he can do that.
"The NFL is the second option."
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ECU Game
There is going to be a lot of new faces when the Hokies face my Pirates next season in Charlotte.
I have no doubt that Beamer will have a talented team and will be ready to play. Va Tech has a great program despite a couple of bad apples.
Don't diss AHRM
I am a recent grad of the Apparel, Housing, and Resource Management program and please don't discredit the whole program/major for the lack of work ethic and focus that are displayed by some football players. We have "real" classes, real students, and the best advising and professors Tech has to offer in my opinion. FYI--the players were primarily centered or will graduate in one option or core out of 5 or more options of AHRM. Know your facts or better yet join the department and take the classes yourself--forget hearsay or "knowing" someone in the department.
Already Pros
Yes, Virginia Tech is a generally good school with some outstanding programs of which the students and alumni should be very proud. I do not understand why the school chooses as its public face the football players who are not at all representative of the student body overall and who obviously do not have the same academic focus and abililty as the majority of the students on campus. Branden Ore and Brandon Flowers should move on to the NFL. They are already professional football players, not student athletes, so why not get paid at a higher rate than just tuition, room, board and books?
Funny
It really amazes me how the same few people (and I do mean few) keep writing in over and over and over trying to paint Tech as a thug football team like Miami or Florida State. Just because two bad apples came out of the program, and they happened to even be related, a couple of people are determined to try to paint Tech as a bad program. Try pulling up some old headlines or statistics and show us just how bad the Tech team has historically been as a whole, not just two brothers. The numbers and the history just isn't there. Tech is a good school with a good football team coached by a good man. Get over it.
Sounds like the same old thing from the Tech Football Team....
....Selling their souls to the devil to be a "pretend" National Power...The Tech coaches knew about his invlovment in this case before the Orange bowl and will now not welcome him back? Sounds like the same old disipline that has come out of blacksburg in the last 10 years. Frank Beamer properly disipline your players and have them go to "real" classes instead of the apparel, housing and resource management football major that tech offers.
My comment last week was not published.
I said we had a pool at work betting on which VT player would be the first in 2008 to be arrested. I drew Ore. I might win.
Not a good NFL prospect
The NFL will generally take a prospect with some spotty issues. But involvement in drugs(or friends with drugs) and a poor work ethic as shown by Ore in his time at Tech is something NFL GMs won't tolerate. He's shown more of these lapses this past year than he did as a freshman. Although he's not as bad a case as Maurice Clarett or Lawrence Phillips, he doesn't quite have the talent they had as running backs. I don't think NFL teams will feel like taking on another maturity project, so he'll probably end up as an undrafted free agent. But then again he may have not have a choice on entering the draft if Tech has had enough of him and the baggage he's building up.